Flora-Fauna

Veronica orientalis Mill.

First published in Gardeners Dictionary, ed. 8, no. 10 (1768)
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CXXXI nº 1–2; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial herb 3–20(–30) cm tall, with a vigorous taproot and strongly branched, ascending to erect stems; lower parts woody and robust. Whole plant often remaining greenish when dried.

• Leaves: Lower and “normal” leaves (those subtending the racemes) 5–20 × 2–7 mm, variable in shape from linear-lanceolate to obovate or suborbicular, base cuneate, margin flat or slightly revolute, entire to coarsely serrate or subpinnatifid (up to 8–11 teeth per side), both faces covered with short curved eglandular hairs (0.1–0.4 mm); upper leaves smaller, entire, ± revolute, densely pubescent to canescent.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Racemes 1–4(–8), short, loosely to densely flowered, bearing 5–40(–50) flowers; pedicels 2–5(–6) mm, spreading, about as long as the linear-oblong bracts. Calyx 2–3 mm at anthesis, 3–4 mm in fruit, lobes oblong, pubescent; corolla pale blue to violet, about 5 mm, slightly longer than the calyx.

• Fruit: Capsule suborbicular, 3–4 mm, slightly notched, densely pubescent; seeds few, rugulose.

• Phenology: Flowers April – July.

• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes, steppe and subalpine grasslands; 900 – 2 100 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Collected from Jabal Semaʿane, Bloudane, Ouadi el-Qarn, and Jabal Rheimoun.

• Native range: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Türkiye (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A highly polymorphic and taxonomically difficult species; V. billardieri Vahl and related names correspond to alpine forms (often under 10 cm, densely pubescent, with small obovate leaves) occurring above 1 800 m in Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon and Hermon. Mouterde confirmed these as morphological variants within V. orientalis Mill., not deserving subspecific rank